Symonds not to face streaker charge

Melbourne, Mar.5 (ANI): Queensland Police today said that they would not be investigating Andrew Symonds for flattening a streaker at the Gabba in Brisbane on Tuesday. Fox Sports quoted a police spokesman said no complaints of assault had been received against Symonds, a keen rugby league fan. The 26-year-old Brisbane streaker, however, will face a Brisbane Magistrates Court and be charged with interfering with a person engaged in sport and wilful obscene exposure. Cricket officials say Symonds will face no penalty over the incident. Meanwhile pacer Stuart Clark has defended Symonds over the shoulder charge. “I only saw it live and it looked like the guy was running at him and Andrew to some extent tried to protect himself.” Clark said. “I probably need to slow it down and have a look at some slow motion of it, but the guy didn’t get up all that quickly from what I saw.” The incident happened during the second one-day tri-series final against India. The streaker appeared to attempt to run closely around Symonds but the rugby league-trained Queenslander stepped towards him, knocking the man off his feet. A second male streaker disrupted play in the 42nd over of Australia’s innings after appearing to jump the fence at the long-off boundary where Harbhajan Singh was fielding. He ran past a startled Harbhajan and was brought down by security guards before he reached the pitch. Clark said the invasions upset players because they changed momentum. Symonds could have faced a serious punishment if the International Cricket Council had decided to take action against him. Physical assault of a rival player, an official or a spectator is punishable by a ban ranging anywhere from five Test matches or 10 limited-overs internationals up to a lifetime. The spectator could be fined up to 3,000 dollars for invading the pitch, but faces a possible jail term for the exposure charge. (ANI)